In the pantheon of the best of the best food in the world, I have to nominate the humble local huckleberry. The huckleberries on PPP, between about 3500 and 4500' were simple perfection today. Some the size of small grapes, colors from Red to Blue, and lots of them. Sweet, sour, huckle-ee. These distractions added over an hour to my trip today. Tucker and Ruby were eating them off the bush like baby bears. You will have to work to get to them however, close to 1500' of climbing before you get into the zone.Tucker's leg is feeling better and he rallied for a last hike. Nice way to end my summer season. I regret not being here for October and November, my favorite months to hike, but my wife and I are off on a little adventure overseas. Thanks for all of your trip reports this spring and summer; it's been nice chatting with (most of) you this year :D Have a great fall season!

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Beautiful day up on P3. The route is snow free to the top. Was going to loop over to Mason Lake and down that way but the snow still looks pretty hairy over on the traverse across Mt Defiance so we just opted to go back down the way we came up.

The Ira Spring parking area was packed. I haven't been hiking on a weekend in awhile and I was amazed at how many people are out. In spite of the hundred+ cars, the P3 only had a handful of hikers on it, the rest of them going up the main trail.

I took my friend D with me (and his little dog too - mine stayed at home, they don't play well with others). This was D's first hike in a while and it's really not very nice to spring this hike on an unsuspecting victim. Kudos to him for persevering and making to the summit. Based on his experience, if you want to do this trail, have some basic conditioning under your belt (the only thing that got him to the top), bring a lot of fluids, enough food to give you energy, a friend to yell encouragement and/or derisive comments (as needed) and be prepared to sweat and swear. Also bring bug spray.

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A trail report, and a product review of Muscle Milk 17oz Cafe Latte Protein Shake.

First the report:

Good things about the trail: All but 20 yards of the PPP trail is clear of snow. There are not a lot hikes to over 5200' that are snow free right now, but the spine up the south face of West Defiance Ridge is melted out to the top. Deep snow flanks both sides of the trail, and it looks like there is quite a bit of snow along the ridge (see below). The transition zone between forest and open slope has always been a wet bushwack on cloudy days like today, but sometime since last fall someone has done a little judicious brushing, making the journey through the scrubby trees just really wet instead of absolutely dripping wet. The Bear Grass is still smallish which makes footing and trail finding a lot easier than later in the year. All in all, I think the trail is in the best condition that I've ever seen it.

Bad things about the trail: The worst thing about the hike was being in a cloud all day. Some of the shine rubs off when you can't see anything. Christoper posted some nice pics here http://www.wta.org/[…]/trip_report.2011-06-04.1692542094 if you want to take a look at snow on the ridge. Today was about 50 yards visibility at best near the summit. I've never descended this trail in the fog and it has one tricky part, which is where the ridge splits above the small snowfield you have to cross. As you go up, make a mental note of this place, and when you come down, once you cross the snow, go to the unremarkable looking trees to the right, not to the nice clean looking ridge to the left. It ends in some ugly looking cliffs and you'll have to back track.

Product review:

Muscle Milk 17oz Cafe Latte Protein Shake, available in bulk at a Costco near you. A friend of mine who is a serious weight lifter, recommended this stuff to me after I told him that I have been taking Ensure Plus on the trail (I hate packing a lunch and really, by the time I want to eat on a hike, I'm a sweaty mess and don't want to set up a picnic while bugs fly in and out of my mouth). It has 32 grams of protein, 300 calories and lower sugar and carb, as compared to 13 grams protein, 300 calories and lots of sugar and carbs in Ensure. It also has caffeine, which it mentions on the label, but doesn't give a dosage (and I use that term on purpose).

Like a lot of Northwesterners, I've been drinking coffee for most of my life. Coffee is the tonic that keeps my blood moving and I've been continuously dosed at a fairly high level for at least 30 years. I drink at least three cups of coffee a day, every day, without fail. I would not go cold turkey without a reservation in a hospital bed and a promise of morphine. I share this not because I am proud of it, but to underscore the fact that I am no lightweight when it comes to caffeine. Having said all that, it came as a complete surprise when I chugged my first Muscle Milk Cafe Latte and was thrown in the path of a speeding train.

The dark side: Last week I was interviewing a candidate for a job over the lunch hour. I decided I would have one of my new protein shakes before the interview to keep me fresh and alert since I wasn't going to get to eat for awhile. I chugged down all 17 ounces about 20 minutes before starting the interview. Things started out OK, but about 5 min into it, my mind began to wander. Then I started to feel warm. Then sweat. I was getting tunnel vision and couldn't pay attention or stay on topic. It was a terrible interview and my anxiety started to snowball and just as I was sure I was about to have a complete nervous breakdown, I remembered the "contains caffeine" on the label. I did my best to laugh it off and include the candidate in on the funny thing that happened to me on the way to the interview, but it was embarrassing (fortunately, I didn't scare her off). Given my tolerance for caffeine, there must have been at least 400 mg of caffeine (four cups of coffee), maybe a lot more, in that one bottle of Muscle Milk. I could not find anything on the web that gave caffeine content. The verdict: not safe for work, especially when you have to sit still and pay attention.

The bright side: I took some with me today to PPP. I drank half of the 17 oz about a mile from the summit, and the rest at the summit. I hung around for awhile, hoping for the sun that never came out. When I got up to hike back down, something amazing happened. My legs felt stronger than when I got out of the car and started the hike. I felt GREAT!!!! I bounded down the steep hill and practically skipped back to the car. If it wasn't skipping, it was certainly a purposeful stride, which is not how I usually roll at the end of a long steep hike. The verdict: anything that gives you this much energy can't be good for you, can it? I'm intrigued by the hill climbing possibilities, but also a little wary. The first time I drank a big cup of Tim Horton's coffee, I felt GREAT!!!! It was like euphoric recall after that, I chased that dragon all over Canada and never felt that good again. We'll see how it goes with Muscle Milk...

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J., M. and I climbed Putrid Pete's Peak today. It was all pretty much as expected (as long as you expect an impressively steep ridge climb for the last 45 minutes).

The trail is in nice, dry condition in the initial forested portion, and although it was a little faint in parts, and there were a couple of ambiguities, as long as you keep going up when you're in doubt, you're fine.

Up high, there are a couple of small snow fields on the ridge, only one of which is more or less unavoidable. The snow is wet and heavy, and you can toe-in with boots in the really steep parts. Poles were very helpful. The ridge portion doesn't really have a consolidated trail, but as long as you're on it and gaining elevation, you'll hit the summit.

The views from P3 make you forget any pain you might feel from the climb...today was exceptionally clear, and you could see Mt. Rainier in full glory, plus Mt. Baker, Mt. Adams, the Olympics, Downtown Seattle, Downtown Bellevue, and, we're pretty sure, Downtown Tacoma (I hiked how far up to see the Tacoma Dome?)

The ridge descent is steep but if you attend to your footing, it's fine. The trail isn't always easy to follow when you first hit vegetation going down, and we got a few meters off track at one point before finding it again, so it couldn't hurt to build a cairn or two if you're not familiar with the trail.

P3 is highly recommended on a clear day like today. You have to like (or at least tolerate) a steep scramble and have confident footing, but the reward is stunning.